‘Wildstar’-Developer Carbine Studios Cuts Staff

Carbine Studios, developer of the massively multiplayer online video game “WildStar,” announced via a post on its official message board that it is making significant cutbacks to internal staff and canceling the planned Chinese release of “WildStar.”

According to the post, the layoffs are occurring because the cancellation of the Chinese version of the game and because the resulting internal reclassification of “WildStar” from “in development” to “live” demanded a reorganization of operations. “WildStar” was released in North American and Europe in 2014.

The reclassification means that Carbine’s focus will shift to maintaining its game over creating new content, since “WildStar” is fully released in every region they plan to make it for, and so staffing requirements are lessened.

“Earlier this morning, Carbine Studios completed a reorganization of its operating structure. Moving forward, the studio will focus on operating and updating ‘WildStar’ as a live game in the US and Europe. As part of this change, the studio has canceled its plans to bring ‘WildStar’ to China,” read the statement, which was issued by parent company NCSoft’s Omeed Dariani.

“Unfortunately, as a result of these changes, we’ve had to reduce staff. These cuts are directly tied to ‘WildStar”s evolution from a product in development to a live title, to the cancellation of work to bring ‘WildStar’ to China, and to the overall performance of ‘WildStar’ since launch in 2014.”

Polygon reports that staff is being cut by as much as 40 percent. When asked for further comment by TheWrap, a representative of NCSoft pointed back to the statement above.

This is the second round of layoffs for Carbine since “WildStar” launched. In October 2014, a restructuring at NCSoft led to the elimination of a number of jobs in the South Korean company’s various subsidiaries, including Carbine.

7 LGBT 'Star Wars' Characters You Probably Didn't Know Exist (Photos)

J.J. Abrams recently said that "of course" gay characters would soon be seen in the "Star Wars" galaxy. And Mark Hamill said that Luke Skywalker could be gay. But there are already several LGBT "Star Wars" characters -- at least in the galaxy of books, comics, and games.

Reess Kairn, who appeared as the villain in the 1999 comic "The Bounty Hunters: Aurra Sing," had undergone "transgenderative surgery" to transition from an alien male to a human woman.

Juhani (right), a lesbian cathar alien, was featured in the video game "Knights of the Old Republic" in 2004, and was the first confirmed and openly gay character in Star Wars.

Lord Cytharat is a gay Sith introduced in "Star Wars: The Old Republic" in 2013, and was the first character in the long-running online game who could share a kiss with a player character of the same gender.

Lemda is a bisexual woman introduced in "Star Wars: The Old Republic" in 2013. Players can swap numbers with her, but she never calls.

The spy Theron Shan's backstory was detailed in both comics (in 2011) and a novel (in 2012) before appearing in the video game "Star Wars: The Old Republic" in 2014 as someone that player characters could become romantically involved with, no matter their gender.

The bisexual Lana Beniko first appeared in the video game "Star Wars: The Old Republic" in 2014.

The bisexual Koth Vortena was introduced in the video game "Star Wars: The Old Republic" in 2015.

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J.J. Abrams says we’ll see some LGBT “Star Wars” characters soon. But here are some that die-hard fans have already met.

J.J. Abrams recently said that "of course" gay characters would soon be seen in the "Star Wars" galaxy. And Mark Hamill said that Luke Skywalker could be gay. But there are already several LGBT "Star Wars" characters -- at least in the galaxy of books, comics, and games.